Random note: getting the bonding module to work, edit /etc/modprobe.d/bonding (a new file) and add:
alias bond0 bonding options bond0 miimon=100 mode=active-backup
If you are using a 2.6 kernel, then the bonding module will be loaded with the correct options when you try to bring up the interface. Referencing the interface by name triggers the loading of the module, and the reading of this config file. However, and I talk to myself here since I forgot today, this doesnt work with the old 2.4 kernel modutils package. Only the new module-init-tools package when using a 2.6 kernel!
To complete the rant here, populate your /etc/network/interfaces file with something like the following, adjusting the address as required of course:
auto iface bond0 iface bond0 inet static pre-up ifconfig bond0 up pre-up ifconfig eth0 up pre-up ifconfig eth1 up pre-up ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth1 address 10.0.0.5 netmask 255.255.0.0 broadcast 10.10.255.255 gateway 10.0.0.1 down ifconfig eth0 down down ifconfig eth1 down
Now, if you don’t know which intrefaces you want to bond together into a bond (what Windows calls a ‘team’, or ‘teaming’), then you can take a look at Nick Ferrier‘s solution involving doing a quick DHCP request on each interface and working out which interfaces are on common networks; a very clever piece.
So, if you’re still reading this about bonding, you should probably be monitoring your bonded connections. Otherwise, one link will fail, and you’ll never notice! Check out my SVN repository for the Nagios plugin to check the /proc/net/bonding/* file(s).
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